THE 21ST WINTER CUP OF LONATO READY FOR THE GRAND FINALE

20/02/2016

After qualifying heats with a record presence of 268 drivers, the Grand Finale of the 21st edition of the Winter Cup is all set to go on stage with Prefinals and Finals at the South Garda Karting Circuit with Live Streaming.

Lonato del Garda (Brescia, Italy). Friday and Saturday devoted to heats of the 21st Winter Cup defined the finalists and the main candidates to the victory of Sunday's races in categories KZ2, OK, OK Junior and Mini Rok to take place on the renewed South Garda Karting Circuit, that has now been extended to 1.200 meters through a series of improvements.

A total of 268 drivers have taken part in this year's event, as opposed to the 241 partaking in last year's edition, which allowed this important early season international race to set another record participation with drivers coming from 36 different countries.

Saturday heats held on a great sunny day produced an amazing spectacle, especially in KZ2, where a lot of drivers of the 66 racers at the start put their name forward for the final victory. The Italian driver of Tony Kart Marco Ardigò and the Dutch Bas Lammers at the debut with Sodikart put in a great battle. Ardigò managed to pull a better result as he took all the victories in the three heats he took part in. Lammers claimed two victories and a second place, which granted him the second place of the absolute classification. Antony Abbasse (Sodikart), Davide Forè (Gold), Leonardo Lorandi (Tony Kart), Luca Corberi (Tony Kart), Flavio Camponeschi (CRG), Alexander Schmitz (Tony Kart), Joel Johansson (Gold) and Andreas Backman (Kosmic) round up the top ten of the category.

Category OK features 32 drivers at the start and the best starting position was secured by the Danish Tony Kart works driver Nicklas Nielsen, who took two victories and a second place as in this latter occasion he was proceeded by the other protagonist of the category, the Italian Lorenzo Travisanutto (Tony Kart-Vortex, Ward Racing). The provisional third place is currently occupied by the American Logan Sargeant (FA Kart-Vortex, Ricky Flynn), while the Spanish driver of CRG Pedro Hiltbrand (CRG-Parilla) follows them in fourth.

The first position of the busy OK Junior, that has 65 drivers on track, is currently held by the French driver Timothy Peisselon (FA Kart-Vortex, Ricky Flynn) thanks to the victory on Friday and some good placings on Saturday, at the end of the seven heats run in the two days. The second place went the Russian Ivan Shvetsov's ways (Tony Kart-Vortex, Ward Racing), as the Dane Noah Watt (Tony Kart-Vortex, Baby Race) follows in third and the British driver Frederik Vesti (Exprit-Vortex, Forza Racing) in fourth.

Six heats on Friday and nine on Saturday have been needed to draw the classification of the 105 drivers on track in Mini Rok. Roman Stanek (Energy, Giugliano Kart) has been the best so far as he secured four wins, while the Russian Kirill Smal (Energy Corse) claimed three victories taking the second place of the absolute classification. The third place is currently held by Francesco Pizzi (Energy, Giugliano Kart) who took two wins. The other winners were Pietro Delli Guanti (Tony Kart) who took two wins, while Marco Bernardi (Energy), Tommaso Cioci (Energy), Leonardo Caglioni (Evokart), Lorenzo Marin (Maranello) claimed one victory each.

THE NEW LOOK OF LONATO

The new layout of the South Garda Karting circuit features now 1.200 meters with two new sectors joining the old circuit. The track has been completely resurfaced and equipped with 20 optical fiber CCTV cameras to monitor the whole circuit. The new paddock occupies 23.000 square meters. Regarding safety, the circuit is protected by 550 meters of plastic barriers, 250 meters of foam rubber and 40 meters of tyres, while marshals are accommodated in 8 fixed posts along the track. Timing system is the latest generation by Apex featuring three timed sectors.

Prefinals and Finals held on Sunday February 21st will be available through Live Streaming at the website www.southgardakarting.it from local 10.25hrs.